


of '93

by smithens



Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Double Drabble, Ficlet, First Meetings, Gen, Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-15 21:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11239464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smithens/pseuds/smithens
Summary: A first impression goes wrong.





	of '93

**Author's Note:**

> teeny teeny Tumblr ficlet. :-3

_1825_

“But surely,” said Combeferre, after quickly swallowing his mouthful of brandy in order that he not spit it out in astonishment, “surely,  _Enjolras_ , you do not endorse the massacres of ‘93? Atrocities committed in the name of ‘liberty, equality, and fraternity’ remain atrocities despite motive. One may deliver justice without delivering cruelty. A trial rooted in fanaticism is unfair. Is penalty of death ever truly righteous, when it is men and not God who judges so? Nicolas de Condorcet was right to oppose the Montagnards — ”

Enjolras, whose red lips had been pursed in such a manner as to transform his young countenance into a haughty one, interrupted him.

“If it is Condorcet with whom you think yourself in common, if you believe the few deaths of tyrants and of despots are unjust when many more suffer at their decrees, men and women - as you are so concerned with them - alike, and if you find fault with Robespierre and not Roland — ”

“Pardon, I find plenty at fault with Roland, but yours is a fool’s position! to laud Robespierre and Saint-Just, when — ” 

“I should suspect that you and I share little between us after all, if...”  

Several tables away, through a haze of pipe smoke, Bahorel and de Courfeyrac abandoned their game of dominos to stare open-mouthed at what had become of their ‘presentation of friends’.


End file.
